Saturday, 29 September 2012

ISEA2012 Machine Wilderness

As
contradictory as it sounds to hold a conference/exhibition on ecology
in a remote location among the fragile sands of New Mexico, ISEA12 had
an ecological theme "Machine Wilderness". The associated air miles and
car use were the unfortunate overheads. Outstanding works included
François Quévillon's Derive(video) which visualised weather data embedded in the drawing of a reactive 3D graphic landscape. It was remarkable in its subtle rendering and potential for showing data in intuitive ways.

Other top works included The Hand of Man in Taos,

The Hand of Man-Christian Ristow

A gigantic hydraulic hand driven by a data glove which was capable of lifting and crushing cards bodily. "The
Hand of Man" moving sculpture by Christian Ristow, September 27 through
to 30th , in Kit Carson Park is an interactive kinetic sculpture that
you can operate. People were able to work with the artist and crew by
slipping theirr hand into
the sculpture's operation glove - a system that enables the giant
sculpture to mimic your movements. You can pick up cars
that will be part of the exhibit, lift them 25 feet up, turn them
about, and drop them to the ground! The Hand was designed and built by
Ristow, a renowned artist in the field of animatronics. Ristow has been
living and working in Taos since 2005, and built The Hand in 2008.

The Sante Fe day included a visit to SITE whose More Real? Art in the Age of Truthiness show was a knock out-albeit not particularly electronic ( In collaboration with the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The
exhibit will be on display until January 6th, 2013.)

50/50: Fifty Artists,
Fifty Years presented by Museum of Contemporary Native Arts was an
overwhelmingly sad experience , with every work reflecting confusion ,
anger and despair at the native dispossion and the tainting of Indian
lands with radioactive fall out from Nuclear tests.

This
exposed the contradictory nature of the whole event: sensitive
eco-friendly projects addressing the despoiling of the wilderness by
man's careless interventions, at the same time endorsing low rider and
car-centered cultures in the region, and very little said about the grab
for oil, the arctic sea ice melting the move away from nuclear and the
terrifying future that global warming will bring. It was not complacent,
but seemed far from the European consciousness about the global climate
crisis and tthe radical changes needed.

Steve Storz Kanobis Amplifier Research Facility

On Taos day the sinister shed by Steve Storz Kanobis Amplifier Research Facility (KARF) Phase II
at the UNM Klauer Campus in Taos NM, was an
outdoor electronic sculpture installation that underlined the complicity
of scientists in despoiling this pristine landscape in the name of
'freedom'.

However
the focus on building DIY adobe shacks at Taos seemed nice and
hippyish, but is not a realistic long-term solution. Engaging with Los
Alamos was also a nice idea, but the attitudes revealed at the Sante Fe
conference by the artistic director, implied a massive misunderstanding
of the role of art: seeing it only as a way of illustrating existing
scientific materials more effectively, rather than as a radical way of
completely rethinking methodologies.

The
small contribution we made as a team ( Nina Yankowitz, Barry Holden ,
Martin Rieser, Rasmus Vuiori) was an interactive questionnaire using QR
codes to probe the contradictions in people's attitudes to Eco issues.
The resulting web database will be used to drive future online
interventions using avatar humour to engage a thoughtful response to the
crisis.

The main exhibition for ISEA2012 was displayed at a total of seven
venues. It is based at both The Albuquerque Museum of Art & History
and 516 ARTS, with off-site projects at the following five
Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum, the New
Mexico Museum of Natural History, the Rainosek Gallery at the UNM School
of Architecture & Planning, Richard Levy Gallery and the Alvarado
Urban Farm. The exhibition features work that combines art, science and
technology, demonstrating the role art can play in re-envisioning the
world. The over 100 artists are from 16 countries: Austria, Brazil,
Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Mexico, The Netherlands,
New Zealand, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, the U.K. and the USA. The
exhibition was juried and curated through an international call for
proposals, which drew close to 1,500 submissions from artists and
presenters around the globe. The exhibition is accompanied by a
catalogue published by the acclaimed Radius Books, which will be
distributed internationally.

It
was a massive attempt to integrate electronic arts and the ecologic
movement and as such deserves praise for both ambition and achievement.

Wednesday, 12 September 2012

Secret Garden is an
attempt to recreate a contemporary version of the Eden myth in the midst of an
urban environment. It will be available in two versions –a physical
installation and as a virtual mobile experience linked to selected site
locations. In its installation aspect, it will comprises eleven mounted iPads acting
as viewports distributed around a
circle in the Cube gallery at Phoenix Square. Peering into one of the viewports will trigger a view of an idyllic three-dimensional scene
in the ‘Secret Garden’ and tell part of the mythical story of the Fall, through
words, music and dance. This same content will soon be made available using
Augmented Reality software to any visitor with a smartphone.

The Fall story is
common to many of the world’s religions, including Judaism, Christianity and
Islam. The structure of Secret Garden will
be loosely modelled on the ten paths of the Sephirot
in the Jewish telling of the story, which is itself also a symbol of the Tree
of Life and the oldest extant version. Two contemporary human figures re-enact
the story of the Fall, combining sung poetry and video vignettes with 3D
generated environments, each scene dis­tributed to a different one of the
eleven iPad viewports. The viewer’s presence triggers both music and action.

The texts
comprise original poems that tell this classic story in a timeless and relevant
way, examining choices in a fallen world. The musical composition is adaptive
and features vocal settings and digitally treated percussion. The virtual
scenography consists of 3D designs based on an idealised garden space, inspired
by the 19th century Mezzotints for Milton’s
Paradise Lost by John Martin. Viewing the eleven viewports will gradually
assemble the elements of a story in the user’s mind. The story is mysterious
and mythical in nature, however, it is not necessary to see the viewports in
any particular order, and a partial viewing will also provide a complete
experience in itself.

The installation is a unique virtual
reality amalgam of poetry, music, and 3D panoramic images and motion-captured
avatars. It plays with sound narrative and myth, transposed into a modern
context, using technology both in production and delivery in a synthesised and
holistic capacity. Audience movement from viewport to viewport will trigger vocal settings
of authored verse and head movements change the scene perspective in realtime.

The
Institute Of Creative Technologies (IOCT) at De Montfort University supported
the project. The IOCT specialises in cross-disciplinary working that combines
science and technology with the arts and humanities. The project will draw on
expertise from the Faculties of Art & Design, Humanities and Technology,
including the Fused Media Lab (for the virtual scenography), the Architecture
Department (for the physical build of the installation), students on the Games
Design degree (for the interactivity) and the Music, Technology and Innovation
Research Centre (for the music). Management will be provided by Professor
Andrew Hugill (Director of the IOCT) and Professor Martin Rieser (Professor of
Digital Creativity), who are the creators of Secret Garden.